Zainab Abbas


Zainab Abbas is a Pakistani television host, sports presenter, and former makeup artist.

Personal life and education

Abbas was born in Lahore, Pakistan, to domestic cricketer Nasir Abbas and politician Andleeb Abbas. Her father played in the Faisalabad and Hafizabad cricket teams, as a bowler while her mother is a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan on a reserved seat for women from Punjab and was appointed as the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
Abbas earned an MBA in Marketing and Strategy from the University of Warwick, England.
In November 2019, Abbas married Hamza Kardar in Lahore. Hamza is the son of former finance minister and former governor of State Bank of Pakistan, Shahid Hafeez Kardar, himself the son of Abdul Hafeez Kardar, Pakistan cricket team's first captain.

Career

Abbas used to work as a makeup artist with her own studio until 2015, when she auditioned for a World Cup cricket program, which launched her career in presenting and commentating on cricket.
She has written sports pieces for the Pakistani independent news outlets Dawn, and Dunya News.
Abbas has hosted the sports program "Cricket Dewangi" on Dunya News, in addition to the web-series talk show "Sawal Cricket Ka".
In 2019, Abbas became the first Pakistani female presenter in the International Cricket Council's Cricket World Cup.
Abbas presented the Pakistani national cricket league, known as the Pakistan Super League, in the years 2017-2019. She was joined in 2019 by Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Shaun Tait, Kepler Wessels, Amir Sohail, Fakhar-e-Alam, and Erin Holland.

Controversies

In November 2018, Abbas congratulated Pakistani international cricketer Babar Azam on his maiden Test century by tweeting: "Well played @babarazam258 - loved how the boys went congratulating Mickey Arthur celebrating his “son’s” century #PakvNZ". Azam lashed out, responding: "Think before u say something and don’t try to cross ur limits!!!". Opinion on social media was varied and conflicting, with some sports enthusiasts defending Abbas by claiming that she was praising him in his likeness to his coach. Other opined that Abbas was being irresponsible and taking greater liberties in making this personal comparison.